Letters

Republican filter on the Troubles

Two lines stood out in Ronan Bennett's piece on the film Hunger (G2, October 22). One was "Sands is allowed ... to achieve the simple recognition of his complex humanity". Part of this complex humanity was realised in the offence he was in jail for, the arson attack on Balmoral Furniture, whose crime against Ireland was to have a Protestant owner. Context is indeed lacking in Hunger, but to draw the conclusions that the film invites without context is dangerous. What Hunger does is perpetuate the myths around Irish republicanism in general and Sands in particular. The media should be asking just what was heroic about suicide as propaganda. If this was an Islamist starving himself to death, would the same misty-eyed articles be trotted out?

The second quote was "you will not see [a movie] as important or original as Hunger". But the media constantly engages with Ulster using the boundaries defined by the republican view of the conflict. A film exploring the Maze from the prison officers' point of view would be more original. One that looked at the pressure put on the young hunger strikers by the IRA leadership would be more courageous. This leadership included Bik McFarlane, who killed five Irish Protestants in an attack on the Bayardo bar. Sepia-tinged admiration of sectarian zealots is neither innovative nor unique.Darren HunterOxford

Ronan Bennett's vivid description of the feelings of inmates under attack at the Maze would be similar, I should think, to those of the people of Warrington the day IRA bombers murdered Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry.David RainbirdWallasey, Merseyside